


eye of the tiger

by adoreu



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Quarantine, a lil soonhoon, horanghae, lil fluff i guess, this is what i imagine soonyoung writing that horanghae song to be like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23268967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adoreu/pseuds/adoreu
Summary: “You’re really selling this whole Horanghae thing, are you?”“Oh definitely, our fans—and especially you guys, have to accept it now, I made a whole song about it.”“Quarantine really got you this bored, huh?”
Relationships: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 122





	eye of the tiger

**Author's Note:**

> this is what i imagine soonyoung writing that horanghae song to be like, also don’t take my writing too seriously lol it’s just for jokes <3

Soonyoung studies Jihoon from behind, scrolling through his phone on one hand, while the other holds chopsticks hovering above a bowl of ramen. He gradually steps forward, “Hey, Jihoon?”

Jihoon doesn’t make an effort to turn around, “Hm?” He hums, eyes glued to his phone.

“If uh, if you aren’t busy,” Soonyoung tries to build up to the actual question, “Would you mind.. helping me write a song?”

Jihoon’s cheek that was chewing slows down, as the swivel chair he was sitting on turns towards Soonyoung, “What kind?” He asks, as he resumes to chew his ramen at a normal speed.

Soonyoung gulps, not expecting a follow up question, “Uhm,” he mumbles, coming up with a half-lie, “Nothing in particular, I just thought since we mope around all today, I use this time to properly learn how to record. Cause—you know, I’m sorta bad at all that tech stuff.”

Jihoon looks deep in thought, until he replies back blankly, “Okay,” he nods, slurping up his single strand of ramen. “Let’s go.”

Soonyoung blinks, “Wh—Right now?”

Jihoon hops off his chair, walking away, “Yeah, I have nothing better to do.” Soonyoung watches Jihoon walk towards the doorway, raising his brows waiting for Soonyoung to follow, “Coming?”

Soonyoung couldn't pin down why he was so surprised. Was it supposed to be that easy asking for help? 

Soonyoung realizes that he’s not stuck in time, as he stares and notices Jihoon waiting for his response, “Yeah, coming.” 

As Soonyoung follows Jihoon, he realizes he’s not going to the regular recording booth. His eyes widened, “Are we going into your studio?” Jihoon nods nonchalantly, humming a yes. He follows him into his studio, nothing too unfamiliar, he’s been in there before, but definitely not alone with Jihoon. Neon blue and red paints the walls, with his desk right at the entrance. Soonyoung sits in the chair, as his eyes shake seeing the screen.

“Calm down, it’s not as complicated as you think.” Jihoon comforts. His words calmed Soonyoung down a bit, yet all the buttons intimidated him back. 

Jihoon motions for him to sit, which Soonyoung reluctantly does. “All right, let's get started shall we?”

-

“Like this?” Soonyoung mumbled, looking towards Jihoon for guidance. He’s hesitant about asking for help, especially since it’s probably the hundredth time he asked. 

Jihoon shakes his head, “No, here,” he says, and before Soonyoung could see, he feels the touch of Jihoon’s hand on top of his. It doesn't exactly wrap around his whole hand, but his fingers intertwined between his. Soonyoung lets Jihoon pilot the mouse, yet the warmth in Jihoon’s hand distracts him from the content on the screen. Soonyoung glances towards Jihoon, being met with concentrated eyes at the screen, with his face coated in the red glow of his sign. 

“Like that,” Jihoon says, taking his hand off the mouse, “Got it?”

“Hmm?” Soonyoung looks towards the screen, snapping out of his daze, “Oh, yeah, got it.”

“See, it’s not that hard,” Jihoon soothes, “As expected, you’re a fast learner.”

“Really?” Soonyoung questions.

“Yeah,” Jihoon nods, “Call me over if you need anything else, just don’t break anything.”

Soonyoung drags some of his audio samples, just how Jihoon did it earlier, “Oh, I did it,” he thinks audibly, “Thanks Ji—“ He turns behind him expecting Jihoon, but he’s met with nobody, sighing, “—hoon.” 

Soonyoung starts to feel a feeling of emptiness linger in his stomach, but he dismisses it quickly by practicing what he just learned.

-

Life in the Seventeen dorm has shifted since the avid warnings about staying indoors, thus making their idol-lifestyle less exhilarating. Hours of being a couch-potato, switching through K-Dramas every other day, and interacting with Carats on Weverse if it got really boring (not that their fans were boring). On the bright side, quarantine gave a lot of time for exploring new hobbies. Not that song producing wasn’t already a hobby, but just needed to be “enhanced”.

Besides, they weren’t called “self-producing idols” for nothing. 

Soonyoung creaks open the recording room, whimpering a “Hello?” expecting Jihoon giving him a death glare in return. However, he smiles, relieved as he sees an empty seat. He jumps on it, his hands magnetically drawn to the mouse and keyboard. 

He skims through the synths, testing out simple beats from the top of his head. “Jihoon said drag this here..” he says to himself, putting his hand on the mouse. His fingers curl onto the mouse, reminiscing Jihoon’s touch. He doesn’t dwell on it long though, quickly resuming back to the screen. 

He manages to create the most atrociously-catchy reggae beat, and if that wasn’t enough, he added an elephant sound effect for good measure. Sure, it wasn’t anywhere near “Pledis-approved” status, but it was definitely Soonyoung-approved, which is what matters. He bobs his head along, genuinely in love with his creation. With no hesitation, he grabs the mic, pulling up lyrics from his phone. 

Soonyoung sings his heart out, doing every riff humanly possible. 

Once he’s done recording, he hears a younger voice chirp behind him, “Oh, hyung!”

Soonyoung looks from behind, seeing a very amused Chan. The younger one walks over, very entertained with the elder’s singing abilities. “You sound good.”

“I do?” Soonyoung blushes, nudging Chan by the shoulder. “You’re too kind.”

“What are you making?” Chan asks.

Soonyoung puts the autotune to the max. “This.”

He puts his audio on the beat, and voila, he clicks to listen. Soonyoung plays the finalized audio on full blast, head-banging along to his godly creation. He’s convinced he’s the best songwriter in Seventeen, if he wasn't already. There was no second take, no corrections, no nothing. Soonyoung just knew it was perfect from the first beat. 

Soonyoung hears his favorite part coming up, almost jumping out of his chair, “Oh this! This is the best part—wait for it,” the song takes a slight pause, immediately followed with a heavily auto tuned, “ _Horanghae_!” 

The instrumentals were immaculate, so groovy yet so addicting, exactly what Soonyoung has in mind. If he was a song, he would be this. 

After almost two minutes, Chan hears the song close. He takes a breath, his ears finally relaxed, “Wow, hyung, this is uh—“

“ _EVERYTHING I SHOUT IS A MASTERPIECE—_ “ 

Chan inwardly sighs, visibly shocked except Soonyoung is too busy mimicking a DJ to notice, “And it’s still going.”

Once the snippet is done, Soonyoung looks over to Chan, with a hand over his mouth, hiding a very big smile. He forces to purse his lips together, trying to hold his laughter back. 

Soonyoung lounges in his chair, “So, good or what?”

Chan’s hand eventually can’t conceal the spurts of laughter that follow afterwards, “Wow, hyung, this uh.. this is definitely your best work.”

Soonyoung’s ego blinds him from Chan’s sarcasm, “Awh, you think so?”

“Oh yeah,” Chan says, playing along, “from the autotune to the.. elephant noise, I’m sure Jihoon is gonna love this.” Chan leaves, visibly entertained with Soonyoung’s song. 

While Soonyoung is adding a few adlibs to his song, he fails to notice the door open behind him. Soonyoung glances at the computer screen, seeing the faint reflection of an astonished Jihoon staring in disbelief. He turns around, song on repeat, “Jihoon! You like?”

Jihoon doesn’t respond, mouth hanging wide open. His eyes flicker towards Soonyoung, then to the screen, then back to Soonyoung. Jihoon has seen and heard many things, but just from his face alone, this was a first. 

“Come on, don’t just stand there—“

“How’d you even get in here?” Jihoon exclaims. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Soonyoung brushes off, “I took your advice. It’s good right?”

“I—“ Jihoon starts off, scratching his head, “Is this why you came in yesterday asking me how to record?”

Soonyoung ignores him, “Personally I think it’s better than my other solo songs,” he replies, swiveling in his chair. “So what do you say, SoundCloud?” 

Jihoon’s eyes go wide, “Y—You’re actually planning to release this?”

Soonyoung grimances, still swaying along to the song, “Duh.”

Jihoon’s stunned by the genuine answer. He takes a look at Soonyoung, vibing with the music, mouthing the lyrics and all. He realizes very quickly that this isn’t his one of his typical gags. “You’re really selling this whole Horanghae thing, are you?” 

“Oh definitely, our fans—and especially you guys, have to accept it now, I made a whole song about it.” Soonyoung says, dancing along to the beat. 

Jihoon scowls suspiciously, showing his judgy face. He thinks of replying with a witty remark, until his eyes finally focus on Soonyoung. His eyes are closed, in his own little world, dancing along with no calculated movements. It was somehow endearing. “Quarantine really got you this bored, huh?”

Soonyoung’s shoulders suddenly slump, stopping all dancing, “Is it that obvious?”

Jihoon can’t help but scoff, “Keep going, it sounds..” he takes a second to process, wavering between constructive criticism or letting Soonyoung do his thing. His producer side says criticism, yet he’s intrigued where Soonyoung would go without his help. Though he’d never admit it, it was cute seeing him all caught up with his music, “Good, it sounds good.” He compliments, walking away.

Soonyoung blinks, “Wait, what?” He exclaims, almost falling out of his chair, “Wait really?”

“Yes!” Jihoon yells, “Now stop talking before I change my mind.”

“Okay!” Soonyoung replies, being met with a slamming door. That doesn’t throw him off, instead, he picks up his phone, and records his song to upload onto Twitter. 

Within a few minutes, the response was wild. 

Fans were probably bored from the lack of songs, tired of hearing the same Going Seventeen jingle every Monday. Soonyoung thought they deserved a treat after waiting for quarantine to blow over. 

Soonyoung saw the occasional keyboard smash from the international Carats, which he had no idea how to grammarly process, but he assumed they meant good things. He then switched into Weverse, receiving the same praise and reactions. He read more comments, replied to some, and even interacted with a few members. Soonyoung hasn’t felt this excited about a song since their last comeback.

“ _Keep going, it sounds.. good_.”

Soonyoung’s stomach curls thinking about Jihoon’s compliment, the best type of compliment. He clutches onto his phone, spinning in his swivel chair with butterflies in his stomach. 

-

Soonyoung comes to the studio with terrifying news. He wriggles the lock on Jihoon’s studio, not budging. 

The studio is locked. 

He frantically picks up his phone, dialing Jihoon’s number. 

After a few beeps, Jihoon picks up the phone, “Hello—“

“Why’d you lock your studio?” Soonyoung exclaims, scaring the life out of Jihoon.

“Ow,” Jihoon moans, recovering from his shriek, “I locked it because I’m not using it today.”

Soonyoung huffs, “Well, can you _un_ lock it?”

“What’s in it for me?”

Soonyoung sighs, thinking of various bribes that he hasn’t done before. “Uhm, uh, I won’t steal your clothes for a week?”

Jihoon is silent on the phone, making Soonyoung’s stomach churn. Thankfully, he responds, “Really?” He asks, unconvinced. 

“Yes really.” Soonyoung responds in the most convincing way possible through the phone. 

Jihoon does some audible thinking, until after what feels like ten hours, he agrees, “Fine, the spare key is under the mat but just—“

“Yes!” Soonyoung exclaims, punching the air, “Thank you, I love you!”

“Yeah oka—wait, what’d you sa—“

Soonyoung automatically ends the call, not even processing what he said, flipping over the mat. He shoves the key in the lock, scurrying to the chair to resume to his song. In a matter of seconds, he adds the instrumentals for the first verse, almost similar to the reggae vibe from the chorus. Except, more intensified. Soonyoung pulls up his phone, scrolling through his notes to find the lyrics he thought of before he slept, which probably explains why he doesn’t remember writing any of it. 

He picks up the mic, pressing play.

Almost instinctively, the lyrics flow flawlessly with the beat. Soonyoung doesn’t know how, but midway through he started rapping, and it miraculously worked. Once he was done with the main verse, something felt off. He needed a pre-chorus. Yet as Soonyoung looked through his lyrics, he didn’t have anything written down. He slumps in his seat, as his legs dangle off the seat thinking of lyrics. 

Soonyoung’s eyes glance towards the LED sign, “WOOZI’S ROOM” radiating a neon red. He examines it for a bit, until his eyes start to strain. Gradually, a mischievous smile creeps on his face, as he proceeds to write down the pre-chorus. 

He presses record, grooving along.

“ _Woozi is working in the room next door, ten year ago both him and I were in the second year of middle school_ ,”

The lyrics were pretty random, yet Soonyoung felt nostalgic so he felt the need to add them. After a while of adding ad libs, Soonyoung hears a creak of the door, “Please tell me you scrapped those lyrics.”

Soonyoung didn’t have to turn around to know who that snarky monotone voice was, “Why would I scrap a lyrical masterpiece?” He can hear a heavy sigh between his words, “Isn’t it true though?”

“That we met in middle school?”

“No, not that,” Soonyoung scoffs, “What I meant was—“ he takes a deep breath, beginning to recite the lyrics overdramatically, making weird hand gestures while rapping, “ _Woozi is working in the room next door—_ “

Soonyoung ducks under the chair, seeing the raise of Jihoon’s hand diving towards him. Jihoon smacks Soonyoung’s shoulder, making him quiet without saying a word, “I let you in my studio and this is what I come to?”

“Come on, what were you expecting?” Soonyoung taunts, “One day you’ll be standing there—“ he points to a random spot in the room, “Watching me record, and be like ‘wow, he’s so good’.”

Jihoon rolls his eyes, letting his comment slide, “I saw you posted to the Twitter account,” he says, making Soonyoung tense, “Somehow.. Our fans like it.”

“See? I’m giving our fans what they want.”

“I thought this was gonna be a solo project, y’know, like a ringtone, or—or some sound effect they’d put on Going Seventeen, specifically one where you do something dumb—“

Soonyoung cuts him off before he could ramble on, “Pfft, no, this is an _ode_ to the fans.”

Jihoon cocks a suspicious look, “To the fans, really?”

Soonyoung sulks, found guilty, “And maybe for myself, yes.”

Jihoon sighs with a smile, eyes radiating with fondness, “Ah, Kwon Soonyoung, what do I do with you?”

-

Soonyoung scrolls through the group’s Twitter, seeing Seokmin posting a cover. He automatically recognizes the note, and the guitar chords confirm it. Seokmin’s voice was always soothing to listen to, along with the simplistic chords paired with it. He was singing a DAY6 song, the ideal song with a guitar perfect for staying inside and doing nothing, which was half of that world right now. The members were on a DAY6 fever recently, even singing it on vlives, and now Seokmin made a cover. It was at that moment, Soonyoung felt a surge of inspiration. Not for his own song, that was already perfect and needed no corrections. Just the simple urge to sing. 

He quickly types in DAY6 on his computer, scrolling through songs he was familiar enough to sing to. His eyes caught onto “You Were Beautiful”, one of the more slow heartfelt ballads in their discography. Soonyoung looks up the lyrics, grabs the mic, and starts singing. 

_What I’m saying right now  
Doesn’t mean that_

_We’re starting up again  
I’m just bringing back_

_The remaining  
Memories of you_

_Without missing a single day  
You told me that you love me_

_Before I went to bed  
As soon as I opened my eyes_

_You told me  
I remember so I’m just saying _

“ _You were pretty, your eyes that looked at me, your voice that called out to me_.” 

As he sings, everything felt perfect. It was a feeling that could only be achieved by singing, the small feeling knowing everything was sung right. Once Soonyoung sings the last note in the chorus, the world goes still, hearing a scattered clap behind him. He whirls around, meeting eyes with an impressed Jihoon. He stands there, still clapping, grinning from ear to ear. His eyes glisten, melting into his signature smile.

Soonyoung gulps, realizing the person he was unknowingly singing to, “How long were you listening?”

“Long enough.” Jihoon replies, his long lasting grin softening, “Did you record that?” 

“I did but, but, I was planning to delete it—”

“You should post it,” Jihoon butts in. Soonyoung scoffs, not thinking much of it. Jihoon on the other hand grimances, “No, I’m serious, Soonyoung. You should, you sound..” he scoffs at himself, giggling into his own chest, “In lack of better words, beautiful.” 

Soonyoung blinks at him, speechless. Jihoon’s face doesn’t budge the second he says it, no cringing or a look of disgust. Though he was laughing, he meant it. Jihoon rarely uses words such as “beautiful”, usually just “good” or “alright” when recording. But this was a first, and it was for him. 

“You know what you said yesterday,” Jihoon ambles towards Soonyoung, leaning on the wall. “About how you said one day, I’ll walk in here, and be like, ‘wow, he’s so good’?”

“Yeah?” Soonyoung mumrers, hesitant. 

Jihoon pauses, anticipation lingering in the air. “I think today is that day.” 

Soonyoung feels his stomach churn—like when Jihoon gave him that compliment the other day, the butterflies increasing at every second. Soonyoung couldn’t hide his joy, it was written all over him. He feels his unapologetic smile slip through, but at this point, he doesn’t mind, as long as Jihoon’s there to see it. 

“Okay, I won’t delete the recording.” Soonyoung cutely obliges.

“If this is all a trick just to get you and me together,” Jihoon says, a sly grin creeping up his face, “Then it’s working.”

Soonyoung doesnt hesitate to smile, letting his plan show through his smirk, “As expected, you’re a fast learner.”


End file.
